your family update
You Backed them and things began to change
“At 75 years old, even working when I can, I can’t make enough for food and medicine.”
Perinbawathi lives in Vivekanandapuram in Batticaloa in the East of Sri Lanka. She is 75 years old. Just two people share the house. She and her husband. They are too old to work. Her five children are all grown up and live away from them. And while they send money now and then, it does not come every month.
She keeps herself going by making and selling uduppam and kanji kalla and taking on any small jobs when she can find them. The work is not regular, and what comes in is not enough to cover what they need. Medical costs take a lot of what little she makes.
Perinbawathi had kidney surgery, and she still goes to the clinic twice a month, every Monday and Thursday. Each visit costs her 4,000 Rupees. She hardly has enough to pay for them. Getting to the clinic is not simple either. She walks through fields and jungle paths to get there. She does this twice a month, at 75, with knee pain alongside everything else.
On the days when money runs short, there is no backup. The children help when they can, but she cannot count on it. She manages with what she makes and what little comes her way.
She has no big plans for the future, just a hope to live without hardship and sorrow, with enough food to eat and medicine for her and her husband.
